Crispy Curry-Spice Chicken Wings

Thanksgiving. Post-Thanksgiving stupor. Holiday parties. Travel. Shopping. Gift-giving cooking. Post office purgatory. Christmas. New Years. Visiting family and friends. Bowl game parties. NFL game gatherings. With all of this thrown on top of everyday life, as the cooks in our clans it isn’t surprising most of us feel like we just got Gronked.

Yet most of us wouldn’t trade it for the world. For some, cooking in the kitchen is a chore, yet for most of us, it is one of the best places in the world. A place where we pour our hearts and souls into the food to bring a smile to those we love.

Diane and I have been hosting gatherings for as long as we’ve been together (nearly 16 years). Starting as two crazy kids who loved to cook combined with a couple roommates who loved to eat. We can still remember many of our first gatherings. Cooking for 8 would take us a week of prep and cooking.

Today we’ve become much more proficient. A gathering of 40 can be done in a day or two. We’ll still start about a week ahead planning the menu, but the actual cooking (sans minor mis en place prep) has been streamlined for efficiency.

A big part of the planning lies in dish selection. What is going to take time to cook when everyone is already here? What has a complicated prep? What can be done ahead? What is time and heat/cold sensitive in serving?

A complicated or time-killing dish isn’t necessarily better tasting than a quick dish. If there is already one dish you must have which takes a lot of prep time, eliminate others which will compete for that time. There needs to be several quick, easy, and delicious dishes at your disposal.

Chicken wings fill that need for us time and again. They can be quickly prep. Mass baked on sheet pans, evenly gently kept warm or re-heated if you need to bake them ahead of time, then tossed in their final sauce when ready to serve. And few things go better with beer and football than chicken wings.

This is our latest favorite, basically taking the sauce we used for the curried smashed potatoes and tossing it with the wings. Which is also another party short-cut. One sauce, two distinct dishes. You can also easily sub in your favorite sauce instead of the curry if you have a more conservative group you are feeding. Here’s our other chicken wing recipes for ideas or you can always serve them with a side of or tossed in a home-made Sriracha style sauce:

Crispy Curry-Spiced Chicken Wings Recipe

Yield:Serves 4-6

Cook Time:40 minutes

Chicken wings can be prepared in different ways to achieve their crispness: fried or baked, with flour or not. To make them extra crisp, you can pre-poach (or pre-boil) them first to render off any excess fat. Visit this write up on different ways to prepare chicken wings. This recipe shows a baked technique, but you can certainly fry the wings to make them crispy.

Ingredients:

2-3 lbs Chicken Wings, tips trimmed, wings cut into 2 pieces

kosher or sea salt and black pepper to season chicken wings

1 cup Coconut Milk

2 Tablespoons Curry Powder

1 Tablespoon Honey

1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce

2 teaspoons Chili Garlic Sauce, or to taste (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven 425°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

Rinse and pat dry chicken wings. Season with salt and pepper.

Lay out wings into a single layer on baking sheets. We don't coat our wings with oil before baking, but you can if you want. We find that the oil just makes the wings greasier. The wings release enough fat already. Bake in oven approx. 40-45 minutes or until golden brown and crispy, flipping wings halfway through baking time (bake time will depend on wing thickness.)

While wings bake, make curry sauce. Combine coconut milk, curry powder, honey, fish sauce, and chili garlic sauce in a medium saucepan. Simmer over low heat for 5 minutes or until it thickens to a bit.

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Recipe Note for Salt: All recipes containing salt are based on kosher or sea salt amounts, not table salt. If using table salt, reduce the amount used to taste.

These wings are quick and easy. It took me about an hour to prepare and cook earlier today, which wasn’t too bad. The sauce was worth it, though, and I think I’ll add just a little more curry to make them spicier next time.

During playoffs a week and a half ago, we ended up at the 99 Ranch Market…. chicken wings were on sale. I was in the mood for “something Vietnamese,” and Barry wanted “something for the game.” In the end, this was our compromise. It was simple and delicious and paired PERFECTLY with a couple bottles of beer. 🙂 Thank you!!

OMG these sound fantastic. I haven’t had chicken wings in quite sometime just because of all the fat but I love these ingredients and I’m sure they would be awesome on chicken breasts as well. However, they will make a perfect party appetizer for the holidays and of course we all indulge then.

Gorgeous!! Beautiful photos. I just made Coq au Vin and worked so hard to photograph it well. It was in a cast iron skillet just like here but your photos are so good. Meats/chicken are so difficult to photograph so I am especially drooling over these… (If you have a spare sec. can you tell me which aperture you used? Is this 2.8, 3.5…?) Happy holidays to one of my favorite blogs!

I don’t eat chicken. But I can say that the wings look awesome and the part about having several quick, easy, and delicious dishes at your disposal…that’s so important! No one wants to stand in their kitchen at their own party; it’s nice to actually party a little and mingle with your guests at your party 🙂